bluehoodsfandomcom-20200213-history
Auntie Holly's Garden
Posted by: Neo (02/21/2019) * F/E-Rank Description Auntie Holly needs some help in her garden. She’s not my aunt, you see, but everyone ‘round here calls her that. Go and give her a hand will ya? I’ll pay you for your time, Blue Hoods. -- Jambon Descal Journals Czernobog (03/30/2019) This job began with the four of us E-rank grunts being propositioned in the guildhall. You'd think I'd be in a great mood with a mission falling literally into our laps as we're sitting around drinking, but it turned out to be an offer of.... helping out on some old lady's farm. My drinking buddies that day must've been generous of spirit since they still leapt at the chance; I only tagged along to redeem my reputation after burning down a forest not far from the city on my last run. The journey to old Aunty Holly's smallholding went without trouble and we arrived at an idyllic homestead hut complete with grazing cattle and a large veggie garden. Holly herself came out to meet us, she behaved like everyone's favourite nanna - all sweetness and sunshine (unless you mentioned her age). She needed help around the property and her first task was to shift the cattle back to their pen. Not very heroic, am I right? Long story short the cows were led by a mammoth-sized bull named Heinrich. One look at a lasso a party member had cooked up caused the herd to violently rise up to try and gore the party to death. I've had fights with bugbears that have been won more easily. Once the beef had been thumped into unconsciousness we dragged them into their pens and went back to Aunt Holly, stinking with sweat. Next task was to weed her vegetables. We had graduated from cowpokes to gardeners. Our small druid, Thomas, morphed into a great big goat and set to mowing down noxious flora. One moment we were honing our green thumbs the next we were beset by angry plant critters with eyes and gnashing teeth. They were easily dispatched but it still made us wonder how a harmless old lady could be surviving out here on her own. Lastly Aunt Holly asked if we could dispose of the thorny critters in a composting pit beneath the tree next to her hut. Guild member Flourite knew something was fishy but the rest of us, keen to see an end to our labours, granted her simple request. Well. That tree was no tree, and Aunt Holly was no sweet old lady but a wicked creature of spite and spores that had been feeding the unsuspecting to her awakened arboreal monster. It was a brutal fight but a clever sleep spell (not cast by me) on the shroom hag, and fancy footwork by our magically enlarged guildly named Kiera held the tree beast's attention while we chipped it down from behind her. We attempted to capture the false homesteader, but upon waking the fungal witch immolated herself in a shower of fire and spores knocking me out and granting me visions of vengeance from a mycological power even stronger than 'Aunt Holly'. The only thing to do was go back to the city and collect our reward. Feylore (07/18/2019) Before I started the job I bought 2 potions of healing for 100gp. Alexander, a paladin of helm, was elected the party leader. I was hoping to be the party leader, but that's ok. We gathered a party of ragtag misfits. The party seemed pretty solid with a couple rangers, and a cleric and a monk. Auntie Holly asked us to get the cows into the pen. She also asked us to help with her garden to be looked into something is eating the tomato plants. We decided to work on the cows first. I almost got one of the cows into the pen but it did steal my perfume and smash it, before we angered the bull. The monk got to close and pissed him off. The bull charged out tiefling and smashed her with his hoofs. Our cleric used some flame type magic to spook the cow a bit, making things a bit worse as the second cow moved over to the tiefling as well. Our monk now surrounded let out a flurry of blows on the bull. But missed and slipped, and hit the bulls horns, it looked like it hurt a bit. I took an offensive stance and roared at the bull and it seemed cower in front of me a bit. Our paladin was able to get to the tiefling and give him a shield to help him a bit. The cleric was able to get some healing to the tiefling. The battle got pretty quick here and i kinda lost track of what all was happening but a few times someone tried to ride the bull and cows. Eventually Holly came out up set of how we were harming the cows. The old lady gave us cake. It was the best cake ever. I loved it. Then she brought Teas and sandwiches…. This lady is amazing. Our paladin seemed to sense some fiends and undead. We started to move some leaves as requested and the tree sprung to life. I recoiled and blew some acid right down its mouth. Looking around where Holly once stood is now a wicked looking witch. Our paladin took the first hit from the tree and almost died. The witch knocked out our kenku with what looked like spores. The fight got fast I wasn't able to focus much. At one point I got hit on the head pretty hard and was knocked out. The paladin seemed to shake me back to life. The tree was dead, and the witch was gone where she was a cloud of green spores. Out kenku was laughing quite loudly when I woke up but the paladin touched him and he stopped laughing. When I woke up I had an odd piece of bark in my pocket. We found a mass grave under the tree and we left the farm. When we found Jambon, the main that sent us on the quest, and told him of the issues we faced he was broken by the news that holly was a horrible thing. He paid us our 100 gold and 2 healing potions each. The paladin laid his hands on the bark we got back and it lights up with a green light and then faded completely.